Hi Michael,
You seem to jump to conclusions too quickly without fully understanding our vision and mission which I will articulate in a few days in a newsletter. I’ve been communicating this transparently for over six months in multiple stories and I received excellent feedback therefore made this decsion with the support of majority. ILLUMINATION on Medium is completely free and will remain like that, as it has been for the past five years. Our publications are managed by volunteer editors who are writers like yourself, and some of them don’t even monetize their content. They do it for the love of writing and the community.
Our commercial focus is on freelance writers who want to earn money via Substack and who needs priority service from paid workers/marketers, not from volunteer writers donating their precious times.
Coming from a business background, I want to support these individuals who deserve it. There’s nothing wrong with this mission. Medium itself is a commercial organization, earning significant revenue from its million subscribers, yet it hasn’t given a cent to the ILLUMINATION editors who have published over 1.5 million stories for free. And 90% of writers earn less than $25 a month for stories they pour their hearts and souls. What am I missing here, mate? There is a lot to say about your romanticizing Medium, but it is not appropriate in a story comment.
You inspired me to write a story about it to pour my heart. I invest countless hours in building this community and will not allow some people to sabotage it through misunderstandings and misinterpretations.
Think it over and get back to me—let's discuss if you are genuine and interested in community values. Thank you for letting us know you’ve moved your stories and decided to leave a wonderful community based on a tenuous understanding. I even gave you free moderator access to Slack, where you could have contacted me to discuss the rationale behind our mission.
Medium isn’t all rainbows and roses, as you portrayed in your story. If you’ve made your decision, I wish you the best in your writing journey. Our doors are always open to authentic writers. They’re free to come and go as they please.
I leave with this story and will keep my doors open to you if you want to chat. You can contact me via my website. I have no hard feelings for your choice and respect it.
